Where to Stream the Goosebumps Extended Universe

When it comes to a child’s first introduction to horror, R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps may very well be at the top of anyone’s list, so what better thing to watch in the Halloween season? Flipping through a variety of Stine adaptations may launch you back two decades or more, when these shows and movies were at their peak, but you don’t have to grow up a ’90s kid to enjoy them now. This franchise knows better than anyone that kids like to scare themselves silly: The story of Slappy the Dummy can have the same effect at a kids’ slumber party as Bloody Mary. Now that Disney+ and Hulu have debuted a new take on the series — and with the Stine series Just Beyond recently pulled from Disney+ — we thought it’d be a scary good idea to list where you can watch all the entries in the Goosebumps franchise, plus a few extra Stine adaptations for good measure.

OG Chills

Goosebumps (1995–98)

The first crack at a Goosebumps television series came just a few years after Stine published his first novel in the series, Welcome to Dead House, in 1992. Since then, the television show and subsequent novels worked hand in hand to create the feel — and the brand — of the Goosebumps we know today. The novelty of these legitimately spooky children’s stories coming to life for the first time, paired with Jack Lenz’s chillingly jaunty theme song, make this six-season anthology run hard to beat. It’s a shame these are so hard to track on a regular streaming service: Netflix has some special episodes like “The Night of the Living Dummy” and “The Haunted Mask” available, but you can buy all the episodes or seasons on digital platforms.

Goosebumps (2015)

Between Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Goosebumps, call Jack Black the king of ’90s children’s franchise reboots. Directed by Rob Letterman (of Shark Tale and Detective Pikachu fame), Goosebumps ’15 offers classic children’s high jinks. The film actually injects R.L. Stine as the driving force in the narrative. Black plays the author, who must help a trio of teens (Odeya Rush, Dylan Minnette, and Ryan Lee) put his storied characters back where they belong (in manuscripts locked away in his library). It’s a lot of fun, surprisingly enough.

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

Slappy the Dummy takes center stage in the Goosebumps movie sequel. Joined by a new cast of kids (Jeremy Ray Taylor, Caleel Harris, and Madison Iseman), Jack Black returns as R.L. Stine but in more of a guest-starring role. Haunted Halloween trades in Goosebumps monsters for Halloween decorations as Slappy brings them to life. Chaotic, we know.

Goosebumps (2023)

Choosing to eschew the anthology format of yore, the latest Goosebumps series decides to focus on a fictional town plagued by mysteriously dark happenings. While the series introduces a cast of teens, Justin Long carries the series so far as a teacher who seemingly gets possessed because truly, why cast this man in a horror project if you aren’t going to put him through the ringer?

Spinoff Thrills

The Haunting Hour: Don’t Think About It (2007) and The Haunting Hour: The Series (2010–14)

Remembering that I watched this movie starring Emily Osment in her best “What if Lilly Truscott from Hannah Montana had black hair instead of blonde?” drag countless times as a kid was like pulling out a repressed memory. All you need to know about direct-to-video The Haunting Hour is that Osment plays an angsty goth girl who messes with an occult text — but don’t worry, it’s so tame that the book is literally called The Evil Thing. On TV, The Haunting Hour series premiered a few years later. It’s not necessarily a spinoff of Goosebumps, but is based on two anthology stories by Stine. The series overall isn’t as strong as ’90s Goosebumps, but it did introduce us to current Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin star Bailee Madison’s horror chops, especially in the “Really You” episodes, so for that we’re thankful .

Mostly Ghostly trilogy (2008–16)

Another set of direct-to-DVD films, Mostly Ghostly premiered on the Disney Channel on Halloween night 2008. The series is adapted from Stine’s Who Let the Ghosts Out? novel and follows a magic-loving 11-year-old named Max Doyle (Sterling Beaumon), who helps two ghost children (Luke Benward and Madison Pettis) figure out what happened to them. The ghost children return for the sequel as they help Max (recast with Ryan Ochoa) get a girlfriend (Bella Thorne), but there’s a whole new cast for the third installment, One Night in Doom House.

The Fear Street trilogy (2021)

In 2021, Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy (written and directed by Leigh Janiak) carried the pop-cultural conversation in July of that year, as the streamer released the three movies in succession over three weeks. Based on Stine’s novels of the same name, and geared to a slightly older teenage audience than Goosebumps, Fear Street is an entertaining set of interconnected slasher films as a group of teens try to uncover why their town, Shadyside, is so cursed with violence. Hint: It includes witches!